Supreme Court lawyer Pawan Prakash Pathak, stated that a plea contending eviction of students for rent has been moved to enforce the fundamental rights of students at large, particularly the right to equality (Article 14) and the right to life as enshrined under Article 21 of the Constitution.
A final year student of Delhi University’s Campus Law Centre, Abhijeet Kumar Pandey, is also a petitioner in the case. Pandey’s father is disabled and he has been surviving on the money sent by his parents. However, due to lockdown, there have been financial difficulties owing to which he has declared himself to be “financially broken.”
Stating more examples of students and landlords violating MHA order, the plea said:
“A second year student of campus law Centre, Delhi university is unable to pay his rent due to this lockdown as he used to earn his monthly expenses by taking home tuition but due to the lockdown, he is not getting any home tuition because of complete restrictions on movement of the people, and his father who is a marginal farmer is unable to send him money because of sharp fall in his income as he used to sell vegetables/grains in the local market but now everything has been stopped, which makes it difficult for him to arrange the money as he usually used to send.”
The petition also highlights the difficulties faced by the PG students with regards to meals per day due to restrictions on the entry of cooks, while still being forced to cough up the PG rent.
